


all of our bridges burned down

by fireofthestars



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:43:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireofthestars/pseuds/fireofthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a character exploration of Stefan Salvatore from 2x22-3x05.</p><p>Written for the TVD comment fic-a-thon on Livejournal. Prompt: if happy ever after did exist, i would still be holding you like this. but all those fairy tales are full of shit, another fucking love song, i’ll be sick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all of our bridges burned down

Emily tells him his heart is pure, she tells him this is his curse.

Lexi tells him love is the thing, the light in the darkness that makes eternity worthwhile.

But his first brush with love left blood on his hands and a gulf stretches between he and Damon and he swears he will never go through it again.

He swears he will turn his heart to stone and put a wall around it ten feet high, and he will never feel this broken again.

Everyone but him knows that he’s lying.

-x-

His existence becomes a cycle.

Ripper. Martyr. Destroy. Mend. Sin. Atone.

When he saves the girl in the still blue silence of Mystic Falls, it is for himself. One more life saved, to pay for a life taken. 

But he sees her face, and his heroics become something else entirely.

He is doomed to fall in love with the same girl for eternity.

-x-

With Elena, there is no Ripper. He shoves the monster inside into a deep dark cellar and bars the door.

He gives her hints in small, easy to swallow pieces. He was worse than Damon, he has a “problem” with blood, he had dark times. But those times are over. He helps his friends and goes to school and feeds on bunnies and says that it’s enough. He is happy now, and no part of him craves the hunt the kill the flesh the blood the screams the blood the blood the blood.

And Damon knows, but he doesn’t say, because neither of them can bear to break her heart.

-x-

Klaus forces him to drink. He tosses blood bag after blood bag and Damon’s life is on the line and he has to drink, he has to, no one could do any differently.

And Katherine is staring at him with concern, then disappointment, and then shock and disgust. And he hates her, he hates her, because she made him this way.

She made him a monster, and Klaus is setting it free, and it’s not his fault.

It’s not.

-x-

Elena finds him in Chicago.

She is there, in that musty apartment, tucked between his vintage scotch and his past. She clutches his journal, her face is framed by the names of the dead, and still she smiles. She looks at him and sees a lover, a hand to walk with into the sunset and live happily ever after. She does not see the blood on his collar, the proof that he is more monster than man.

She has learned the truth, pushed it aside, and loved him still.

And he’s not sure who he hates more at that moment – himself or her.

-x-

In the end, he never was able to build that wall and turn his heart to stone.

But it’s okay, because with three words Klaus does it for him.

As the compulsion pulls him under, he lets out a sigh, and no one else knows that it means, thank you.


End file.
